Balloon sculpturing device

ABSTRACT

A balloon sculpturing device includes a weight unit and a plurality of sculpturing rings. The weight unit includes a weight member and a long cord member having a first end connected to the weight member. Each of the sculpturing rings includes a cylindrical body, which has a first and a second open end and is formed with a plurality of longitudinally extended and circumferentially spaced slots. At each of the slots, a balloon can be mounted and held to the sculpturing ring. A second end of the cord member is sequentially extended through the sculpturing rings having balloons mounted thereon, so that all the balloons are combined into a decorative arrangement.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a balloon sculpturing device, and more particularly to a balloon sculpturing device that enables quick combination of a plurality of balloons into a required decorative arrangement.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Today, balloons are no longer simply ornaments or children's toys. In the past, balloons were used individually in a monotonous manner. Now, a large number of balloons are used together to create different balloon sculptures. Balloon sculptures can be generally divided into two types. The first type balloon sculptures are respectively formed by changing the shape of the balloon, and are often seen in night markets or carnivals. More specifically, after being inflated, the balloons are individually curved, twisted or bent to form the shapes of cute animals or other attractive configurations. The second type balloon sculptures are respectively formed by mounting a plurality of balloons on a stand to form a specific design having desired dimensions, such as balloon arches used in wedding parties.

In practical forming of a balloon sculpture of the second type, complicated procedures are involved. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in a first step, a plurality of balloons 10 is inflated. Then, the inflated balloons 10 are individually knotted before they are connected in pairs by tying their inflation apertures together to form a plurality of balloon pairs 11 for use. Further, a stand 12 is prepared. The stand 12 includes a base 13 and a post 14 fixed to the base 13. Thereafter, the balloon pairs 11 are connected to the post 14 to cross one another, so that all the balloon pairs 11 are sequentially stacked around the post 14 from bottom to top to complete a desired balloon sculpture.

There are some inherent problems when mounting the balloons 10 to the stand 12. First, the post 14 of the stand 12 has a thickness, which might vary from post to post. Therefore, the thickness of the post 14 must be taken into consideration in the course of knotting the balloons 10 and then connecting them in pairs, and a sufficient length of each balloon 10 near the inflation aperture must be reserved for the typing operation, so that the balloons 10 can be successfully mounted on the post 14. Since the balloons 10 are knotted manually, the lengths of the balloons reserved for the tying operation might not be equal among the balloons 10. A balloon 10 will be unable to fix to the post 14 in the event the reserved length thereof is too short, or will become protruded from others or located at an undesired position in the balloon sculpture in the event the reserved length is too long. All these problems increase the difficulty in forming the second type balloon sculpture.

Second, the stand 12 forms a necessary foundation in forming the balloon sculpture. Since differently sized stands 12 must be prepared for forming balloon sculptures suitable for different occasions, extra cost must be expended to design, develop, manufacture, transport and store stands 12 of different sizes, which results in largely increased cost.

As an example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,985 discloses a balloon sculpturing system that uses a support post as a foundation for supporting balloons, and a sculpturing ring for clamping and mounting one or more balloons thereto. The sculpturing ring can be held to the support post at a desired position.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A primary object of the present invention is to provide a balloon sculpturing device that enables combination of a plurality of balloons into a required decorative arrangement without the need of using a stand.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a balloon sculpturing device that enables quick combination of a plurality of balloons into a desired decorative arrangement.

To achieve the above and other objects, the balloon sculpturing device according to the present invention includes a weight unit and a plurality of sculpturing rings. The weight unit includes a weight member and a long cord member having a first end and a second end. The cord member is connected at the first end to the weight member. Each of the sculpturing rings includes a cylindrical body, which has a first and a second open end and is formed with a plurality of longitudinally extended and circumferentially spaced slots. At each of the slots, a balloon can be mounted and held to the sculpturing ring. The second end of the cord member is sequentially extended through the sculpturing rings having balloons mounted thereon, so that all the balloons are combined into a decorative arrangement.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a conventional balloon sculpturing device;

FIG. 2 is a top view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a front view of a balloon sculpturing device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a weight unit and a sculpturing ring for the balloon sculpturing device of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a top view showing a plurality of balloons is held to and mounted on a sculpturing ring;

FIG. 6 is a partially sectioned perspective view of one sculpturing ring with one balloon held thereto;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a plurality of balloons is held to and mounted on the balloon sculpturing device of the present invention to provide a decorative arrangement of balloons; and

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a second end of a cord member of the weight unit is wound around and fixed to a last one of a plurality of sculpturing rings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will now be described with a preferred embodiment thereof and with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Please refer to FIGS. 3 to 5. A balloon sculpturing device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a weight unit 20 and a plurality of sculpturing rings 30. A plurality of balloons 40 can be mounted on the sculpturing rings 30 for forming a decorative arrangement. The weight unit 20 includes a weight member 21 and a long cord member 22. The cord member 22 has a first end for connecting to the weight member 21 and a second end for extending through the sculpturing rings 30. In the illustrated embodiment, the weight member 21 is shown as a water-filled ball. However, in practical implementation of the present invention, the weight member 21 can be a sandbag, a rock, a lead weight, an iron weight or the like.

The balloons 40 shown in FIG. 3 are available in the market and are therefore not described in details herein. Please refer to FIGS. 3 and 6 at the same time. The balloon 40 includes an inflation aperture 41 forming an end thereof and an imperforate inflatable sidewall 42 forming another end thereof. Normally, the degree of inflation of each of the balloons 40 depends on the visual impression to be created by the balloon sculpturing designer. As can be seen from FIGS. 3 and 5, the balloons 40 are substantially round in shape and can be mounted on the sculpturing rings 30, such that the balloons 40 mounted on each sculpturing ring 30 are located around the sculpturing ring 30 and located in the same plane. To prevent the gas in the sidewall 42 of the balloon 40 from escaping, a knotted section 43 is formed on the balloon 40 between the sidewall 42 and the inflation aperture 41.

The sculpturing ring 30 has a cylindrical body 31 defining a longitudinal axial bore 32 therein. The cylindrical body 31 has a first open end 33 and an opposite second open end 34, and is formed with a plurality of longitudinally extended and circumferentially spaced slots 35. Each of the slots 35 is extended from the first open end 33 toward the second open end 34 by a predetermined distance, which is preferably about three-quarters of a full length of the cylindrical body 31, and includes a forward tapered slot section 36 and a balloon locating hole 37 communicable with a reduced front end of the tapered slot section 36. The balloon locating hole 37 has a diameter larger than a width at a joint of the tapered slot section 36 and the balloon locating hole 37.

In the illustrated preferred embodiment, there are four slots 35 formed on the cylindrical wall 31 of the sculpturing ring 30. In practical implementation of the present invention, each of the sculpturing rings 30 can be formed with more than four slots 35 for mounting more than four balloons 40 thereon.

To combine a large number of balloons 40 into a particular decorative arrangement, first mount four balloons 40 on each of the sculpturing rings 30. As shown in FIG. 6, to hold the balloon 40 to the sculpturing ring 30, simply sidewardly extend the knotted section 43 of the balloon 40 into the cylindrical body 31 via an expanded rear end of the tapered slot section 36 of one slot 35 and then move the balloon 40 upward for the knotted section 43 to locate behind and abut on the balloon locating hole 37. The sculpturing rings 30 with balloons 40 mounted thereon are serially connected together by extending the second end of the cord member 22 through the sculpturing rings 30 one by one to thereby form a changeful decorative arrangement, as shown in FIG. 7. It is noted the cord member 22 is routed through inner spaces of the sculpturing rings 30 surrounded by the knotted sections 43 of the balloons 40 mounted on the sculpturing rings 30. When the cord member 22 has been extended through a last one of the sculpturing rings 30, the second end of the cord member 22 is wound around the knotted sections 43 of all the four balloons 40 before it is further wound around an outer surface of the cylindrical body 31 to fixedly connect to the last sculpturing ring 30, as shown in FIG. 8.

The present invention has been described with a preferred embodiment thereof and it is understood that many changes and modifications in the described embodiment can be carried out without departing from the scope and the spirit of the invention that is intended to be limited only by the appended claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A balloon sculpturing device for creating a decorative arrangement of a plurality of balloons, each of the balloons having an inflation aperture forming an end thereof, an imperforate inflatable sidewall forming another end thereof and a knotted section formed between the inflation aperture and the inflatable sidewall after the balloon is inflated, comprising: a weight unit including a weight member and a long cord member; the cord member having a first end and a second end, and being connected at the first end to the weight member; and a plurality of sculpturing ring, each of which includes a cylindrical body; the cylindrical body having a first open end and an opposite second open end, and being formed with a plurality of longitudinally extended and circumferentially spaced slots; each of the slots being extended from the first open end toward the second open end by a predetermined distance; and the knotted section of each balloon being sidewardly extended into the sculpturing ring via one of the slots to thereby mount and hold the balloon to the sculpturing ring; whereby when the second end of the cord member is sequentially extended through the sculpturing rings having the balloons mounted thereon, all the balloons are combined into a decorative arrangement.
 2. The balloon sculpturing device as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the slots includes a forward tapered slot section and a balloon locating hole communicable with a reduced front end of the tapered slot section; and the knotted section of the balloon being extended through the slot via an expanded rear end of the forward tapered slot section before being further moved upward to locate behind the balloon locating hole.
 3. The balloon sculpturing device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the balloon locating hole has a diameter larger than a width at a joint of the tapered slot section and the balloon locating hole.
 4. The balloon sculpturing device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second end of the cord member, after being extended through a last one of the sculpturing rings, is wound around and thereby fixed to the last sculpturing ring. 